James Alexander Michie: The dirty secret that individuals of the anti-carbon tax would choose to hide | National Post

The number of provinces with carbon pricing plans certified by the federal government made by the completion date of January 1 projected by the Trudeau government can be set as low as two: British Columbia and Quebec, which in turn already had plans established before the federal effort to induce the rest online. Earlier, the signal that provinces not willing to impose an unpopular tax on behalf of the federal government could be instigated was always a stretch, but now it has been exposed as a fantasy.

The same has been transformed as good news because if the federals have to be obliged to implement the price themselves, the way is open to installing a carbon tax much simpler, more uniform and that is also designed in a clean way in a large part of the country. What is better, is that due to the elimination of the provincial disorder, the Federals would be in a position to establish a simpler plan to share and communicate, which would also be much more likely to obtain public approval. The original plan promoted by the province promised only to return the revenues to the provincial governments, the carrot that was supposed to ensure their participation. The income from a federal tax, on the other hand, could and would be returned directly to the taxpayers.

However, it is suggested that Canadians do not care what it means for the economy in general. Thus, there is a greater likelihood that income will be returned, not through cuts in tax rates that increase productivity, but through a lump-sum rebate of some kind. Now, as expected, questions arise regarding the issue and would that be enough to guarantee, as stated in the report of the Canadian lobby group for clean prosperity that last month, “the vast majority” of families would get more money they paid in carbon taxes?

The answer would surely be no. But that is not really the question. Critics of the CCP report indicated that their calculations assumed that the price of any carbon tax levied on corporations would not be passed on to families, when in fact they would be. For which it has been said that they are correct because ultimately, all taxes are paid by people. But that is so true of any alternative to a carbon tax. Which is established as a dirty secret that the carbon tax people would prefer that Canadians did not know about.